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My Edible Garden

I've been gardening for most of my life and have been a devoted fan of organic gardening the whole time. It just makes so much more sense to work in harmony with Mother Nature than to fight her. Besides which it is better for the planet and better for our bodies. Here you can see what I'm planting and harvesting, with gardening hints and resources thrown in for good measure.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

More Goings on in the Garden

bolting lettuce and finished spinach

I think April might be the busiest month of the year for gardening. I know I have a lot of things going on at my place right now. In the back of this bed is lettuce I'm letting go to seed. This is the Italian Misticanza mix. I have another bed of this bolting also. Since I wanted more red lettuce I've pulled out most of the greens from this bed. You can also see a California poppy volunteer there. Down front is a patch of spinach. With the warmer days it's getting pretty tired so I picked all the good leaves.

Then I cleared the area of weeds and roots (the chickens loved them). And scattered a bit of horse manure over it. I'm thinking of doing this bed as a '3 sisters style', but instead of corn, beans and squash I"m thinking about using okra, black eye peas and maybe sweet potatoes.

new lettuce bed

Lettuce pickings are down again as another outdoor bed turns bitter and
the tubs of Salad Bowl in the greenhouse join them. In the meantime this
newer bed has produced a few leaves big enough to pick, along with some radishes. Along the front end with the radish are some cilantro. In the upper left are some turnips.

Pea plants in the greenhouse

We had quite a storm Friday night and Saturday with a lot of heavy wind. It shredded part of the plastic on this end of the greenhouse (it was a bit old and starting to go already). It also blew the pea plants around quite a bit and now I must crawl over the rocks to get around them. I think I'm going to let them start drying off for the seed and so I can get them out of the way. Next year I'll try to remember to not let the plants from all the tubs grow together, so I can move them outdoors to a semi shaded spot come spring.

GOALS FOR 2016

I have decided that this year I will try to plant 100 trees and shrubs on my property. Most of these will be small seedlings and cuttings, others will be larger nursery stock as I have the money. Lets see how close I can get by Dec 31!